True Innocence
by Society of Perception
Summary: Inuyasha D Gray-man x over. The Black Order and the Millennium Earl are about to get a big surprise when Higurashi Kagome decides to teach exorcists about true Innocence, and not the fake bond they have formed with stored Innocence.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or D. Gray-man and this is the only time I am going to be posting this disclaimer up.**

**Chapter One:**

Kanda was pissed. And why was he pissed? Simple. Because that idiot Komui decided to put him on another assignment with someone he hated, and that someone happened to be a certain beansprout called Allen Walker. It was bad enough that his so-called 'partner' was a soft-hearted moron, but the mission was often put at risk because the beansprout wouldn't kill his damn targets!

Well, actually Kanda had had a choice as to which mission he had to take. It was either this one, of trying to find an Innocence user in corrupted Japan where they heard strange rumours of an 'angel', or another which was to go to find the general. And right after their stupid trip to the town which was supposedly haunted by a doll. Kanda had been ready to volunteer for the general, but Komui simply sang out that Kanda was going to go on the mission to find the damn angel.

Suddenly a bright white light pulled him out of his grumblings and he glared up the shrine steps he was on to see the shadowy figures of two people that seemed to be locked in combat.

"Hey beansprout, wait until-" Kanda started, but got even more pissed of when he realized that Allen had already rushed up the stairs. Rolling his eyes, he ran after his idiot partner.

And he came upon the makings of a full-out battle.

----

Kagome grunted out and flung the demon away from her, pissed that she had let a low-class youkai (demon) catch her off guard and let him wound her. She felt two others presences but had to quickly shrug it off and doge an attack from the slimy centipede youkai.

She let out a groan when she successfully detached one of its arms from its disgusting insect body and a lot of slime covered her from head to toe. Snarling, she looked up at the demon with renewed malice.

"You bastard. Do you know how long it's going to take me to get your stink off me?!" Kagome snarled at the demon who did nothing more than try to attack again. She dodged and took out the boomerang Sango had given her before she had died at the hands of Naraku.

_'Take it, my sister…' _

_Blood._

_Darkness._

_Screams. _

Kagome quickly shook her head angrily to clear it of the flashbacks. Now was not the time to start dwelling on the memories she had so desperately tried to seal away.

A large bruise formed at her side as she was hit by the centipede's tail and for once, she was thankful that the demon had distracted her from the annoying memories she had tried for so long to repress.

She looked up at the demon and let her lips from a dark smirk. This demon had pissed her off one too many times. But before she could end its pitiful life, she saw that it was being held back by a large, silver-clawed hand. She followed the hand back to its owner and raised a delicate brow at the two men who had so rudely interrupted her battle.

"Can I help you?" she asked with feigned politeness.

----

Kanda looked at the girl with barely concealed surprise. While she had numerous injuries, it seemed that she held no fear from the akuma…or what he thought was an akuma. This akuma was different than all the rest, having an almost humanoid form.

"Can I help you?" Kanda was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the irritated tone the girl had asked the question in.

"Miss, would you please move back so me and my partner can destroy the akuma?" God, what was the beansprout hesitating for? Just kill the damn akuma so they could go! However he was surprised when the girl did not move back and instead voiced another question.

"What the hell are you talking about, akuma? That is a centipede youkai, and a right annoying one too."

The surprises didn't stop there either. As the beansprout tried to exorcise the youkai or whatever it was, the youkai simply ignored him and went back to trying to attack the girl. Allen yelled out 'Innocence Invocation' and his weapon turned into a gun, but the beams of light simply turned parts of the 'youkai' into ash, and didn't make it immediately disappear.

Kanda was about to intervene when he saw the girl step forward with a snort. "Wow. Such a low level of ki. You need more holy ki to destroy a youkai."

----

When Kagome first saw him fire the beams of light from his…arm (wtf?)…she had thought that maybe there was still some holy power left in some people but it seemed that the power level of holy ki he possessed was not enough. He was not drawing on enough of it.

She stepped forward, annoyed that this had taken longer than it should have. "Wow. Such a low level of ki. You need more holy ki to destroy a youkai." She formed a bow out of her pure miko ki and drew back on the bowstring. A ball of energy slowly sharpened into an arrow and Kagome took careful aim before releasing the arrow at the youkai.

----

To say that Kanda was shocked would be an understatement. He had just seen what he assumed to be a normal civilian (although humans should not even exist in Tokyo, due to Japan being the Millennium Earl's territory) completely demolish the akuma or youkai thing with barely any effort. And when he had felt her Innocence, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Her power was beyond anything he had felt before.

It was not only powerful, but also it felt like she was using Innocence, only it was more concentrated, and more natural, as if she had not been bonded with it, but as if it was a part of herself.

"Wha-?" Allen was cut off when the girl swung sharply to meet his eyes.

"You! What the hell did you think you were doing, attacking a youkai with that amount of holy ki?"

I-what-but-you-" Allen stuttered under the heat of the girl's glare. She took in a deep breath and motioned him to come closer.

"Come here and let me heal you. You were injured, no?" Allen glanced down with surprise and saw that he did have a rather long gash marring his side. Kagome sighed and put her hand over his wound. Her hand glowed with her miko ki and slowly Allen and Kanda saw that the skin was muscle was stitching itself back together. Only when his skin was back to its flawless state did Kagome let her hand drop.

She let out a breath and stepped back, admiring her handiwork with a critical eye. When she seemed satisfied, she turned and went back into the shrine, leaving one gaping exorcist and another suspicious one.

The two exorcists were stunned however, when an annoyed voice called from the shrine. "Well, are you two just going to stand there staring at my door all day or are you going to come in?!"

----

Kagome looked at the two with a calculating eye. One seemed to be indifferent to his surroundings, but whenever Kagome moved, his hand tightened minutely on the grip of his katana. He had long…blue…hair held up in a ponytail and he wore robes that had a cross on them.

The other was also quite odd, with snowy-white hair and a tattoo in black ink on the left side of his face, ending with a pentagram above his eye. Somehow, his left eye seemed to radiate dark energy and Kagome found that his eye was tinged with dark energy not of his own.

Interesting. That was the only way to describe the two men sitting in her kitchen. She felt the beginnings of adrenaline pump through her veins, and her mood brightened when she realized that there might still be some excitement to be done in her life since the feudal era.

"My name is Higurashi Kagome. Why have you two decided to appear at my shrine?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: **

_**Recap:**_

"_My name is Higurashi Kagome. Why have you two decided to appear at my shrine?" _

_**End Recap**_

Kagome looked at the two with a raised eyebrow and well-hidden curiousity. The blue-haired one, Yu Kanda, had not bothered to talk, leaving it to his partner who had introduced himself as Allen Walker. Luckily for Kanda, Kagome had already learnt English to the point where her Japanese accent was nearly unnoticeable or else he would have had to do a lot more talking.

"So, this Innocence is used to destroy akuma - was it? And these "akuma" are under the control of some fat dude in a pin-striped suit that calls himself the Millennium Earl." Allen winced at her easy description of such a feared-figure but nodded nonetheless. "Geez, if I had known that there would be this much hype about miko and monk ki I would have enjoyed the time when I was inexperienced, clueless and the world was normal." Kagome muttered, her voice low enough so that the two other occupants in the room could not hear her.

Not that they would have, because they were currently in their own little world, glaring at each other with such intensity that you could literally see the electricity and sparks that flew from their eyes. Kagome smirked at their positions.

"So, is this sexual tension or are you two just repressed?" Kagome asked, trying to smother her snickers.

Kanda and Allen looked up from their glaring match startled and then saw how close they were. They immediately jumped away from each other and shuddered in disgust, not making eye contact, preferably for a while. Kagome tried to keep her laughs down to a minimum but soon found that to be too hard and so gave up and started to laugh her ass off. She laughed good and hard for a very long time. In fact, Kanda was starting to get pissed-off again and Allen simply sweatdropped. Finally she quieted down, wiping away the tears that had sprung to her eyes. "So…why are you two here?"

Allen smiled. "We were supposed to investigate the bursts of energy and rumours surrounding this place. Apparently, your powers are very close to Innocence." Kagome smiled.

"No, the powers aren't just "close", as you say, they are the _**same.**_" Kanda and Allen looked just the tiniest bit puzzled.

"….What?" Kanda asked brusquely. "You do not have any items that store Innocence."

Kagome nearly burst out laughing again at the disgruntled look on his face. "No, because your power is simply my type of energy stored inside a gem of some sort. Apparently it also recharges itself after a while." Allen and Kanda stared at her, full-out shocked.

"So basically, your energy is a very-concentrated form of Innocence." Allen stated. Kagome nodded. "And I suppose that all the random Innocence bursts are a product of our fights with those…what did you call them?"

"Youkai. And yes, every single frickin' day another youkai comes up to my shrine and starts mouthing off at me and demanding the Shikon no Tama-"

In a rare moment of hilarity, Kanda nearly fell off his chair. "SHIKON NO TAMA?! That's just a bedtime story mothers would tell their children to get them to bed." He straightened and recovered his composure, and his blunt mannerisms. "The last person to ever posses it was a miko in the Feudal Era. Plus, you look too weak to wield it."

Kagome's eye twitched in anger. "It's funny. I never knew that the theory of time distortions was true until my fifteenth birthday…and WEAK??!?!?!?! I'll show you weak!" She placed her palm mere inches away from his face and let her miko ki surge to the surface, creating a beam of purple energy that hit him point-blank and sent him flying. Good thing he had quick reflexes or he would have crashed unceremoniously onto the floor instead of flipping in the air and landing gracefully, crouched on the tips of his toes. He glared at her and she glared right back, barring the fact that she was being a hypocrite by doing the same thing that he and Allen were doing mere minutes before.

In a flash of movement, they both leapt at each other, Kanda pulling out his Mugen and Kagome pulling out a hidden katana that had been strapped to her thigh and powering it up with her miko ki. Kagome parried and slashed at his sword while he did the same, his katana unconsciously glowing in response, creating a very hypnotizing effect as the swords clashed. Allen watched in sheer amazement as the fragile-looking woman went head-to-head with Kanda, their speed increasing until they were both only a blur of colours. Kagome and Kanda weaved a path of destruction; destroying trees, boulders and eventually they both gave up, acknowledging the stalemate what with Kanda being just recovered from his mission and Kagome with her wounds still not healed.

"Your stance is unfamiliar to me. A family tradition?" Kanda asked a bit reluctantly.

Kagome smiled at the effort he was making to respect her. "No, just something my friend taught me." She said, thinking back to Sango and Sesshomaru. "It's a mixture of demon and demon slayer fighting styles."

Kanda raised an eyebrow, inwardly impressed. "Demon and demon slayer? How does that mix?"

"Simple. One stance flows into the other as if they were made to meld." Allen by this time was getting confused and feeling a bit ignored.

"Um…Kanda, shouldn't we take her back to Headquarters, you know, just in case the Millennium Earl finds out about her powers." Kanda looked annoyed at being interrupted, but considered Allen's words and nodded. He turned back to Kagome.

"Would you me with us to be protected?" he asked, surprisingly politely. Kagome was taken aback for a moment but then she nodded.

"Sure. But just let me call my friends to let them know where I'm going…where am I going by the way?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.

"The Exorcist Headquarters: The Black Order." Allen replied helpfully, smiling as Kagome hurried off. He and Kanda stood there awkwardly, waiting for Kagome to come back. When she finally did, they saw a black bag slung over her shoulder.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" Kagome yelled hurriedly, running down the shrine steps quickly, Kanda and Allen already following her.

"Why are we running?" Allen asked, noting the way she ran, her expression one of panic. Kagome didn't slow but let Kanda pass her so that she would know the way to the Headquarters.

She chuckled nervously. "Heh heh, my friend doesn't want me leaving the shrine because he says it's "unsafe". And I told him I was going anyways and hung up, so now I'm guessing that he's headed over here right now to stop me." Kanda and Allen sweatdropped at her explanation, but said nothing.

In a mere hour of running, they had already caught a boat off of Japan soil and headed for The Black Order. Kagome had still not settled down, peering over her shoulder every five minutes. Allen placed his hand on her shoulder and smiled at her terrified face.

"Don't worry, we're already too far for him to catch you." Kagome shook her head.

"No we aren't. My friend is a taiyoukai. He used to be the Lord of the Western Lands in the Feudal Era and his speed is practically godly. He was the one who taught me to fight and he has some very powerful connections all over Japan." Kagome stated, shivers crawling up and down her spine as she looked out into the darkening skies.

"Why are you friends with someone so powerful?" Allen asked, curious.

"I saved his ward and his brother numerous times on my quest to place the Shikon no Tama shards back together." Kagome said, smiling sheepishly once more.

"Half-brother, miko." A voice came from her right and Kagome stiffened, slowly turning her head. Kanda and Allen just looked plain creeped-out by the way that he just appeared on the ship. "And did you truly think that you could run away without permission? I have been on this ship ever since you boarded." He stated with a stoic face and an indifferent tone.

Kagome sighed. "Damnit. But I'm going to the Black Order!" she said childishly, almost pouting. Sesshomaru sighed, but when she turned the puppy-dog expression on him, he reared back, eyes twitching in an effort to resist. Finally he gave up. "You may go, but only if Shippo goes with you." Kagome let out a cheer and hugged Sesshomaru.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!" she cried, but he just sighed and rubbed his temples, wondering what he had gotten himself into.

"Mama!" Kagome turned with an ecstatic expression on her face and let a bundle of red and green come crashing into her as she laughed and hugged the kitsune back. Kanda and Allen twitched. First a man with long silver hair and now a man with long fiery hair? Did these people never cut their hair at all? The new man had long, waist-length hair that was bound in a ponytail and he wore completely green clothes.

It was by this time that Kagome remembered her forgotten travelling companions. Turning with an embarrassed blush, she smiled at the two ruffled exorcists. "Sorry! This is Lord Sesshomaru-" She said, pointing to the silver-haired one. "-and this is my adopted son, Shippo." She gestured to the crimson-haired one.

Kanda simply nodded while Allen greeted them politely.

Kagome sighed when she felt the tension level go way up and let her shoulders sag in defeat. This would be a looooooooooooooooooooooong trip.

_At the Headquarters…_

A rogue robot crashed through the hallways clumsily, searching for exorcists he could "fix". All the exorcists wisely stood out of the way and let the non-exorcists handle the robot, even if they weren't doing a very good job. The robot crashed through one final wall before it was outside, just in front of where Kagome, Shippo, Kanda and Allen were getting off. It zeroed in on Allen and Kanda and seemed to decide who to go for, but in the end, chose Allen.

Allen yelled and ran, the huge robot chasing after him. Kanda scoffed and continued into the base while Kagome and Shippo watched, amused at Allen's suffering. A woman leapt out of the demolished wall and kicked the robot, effectively smashing a crater into its metal body. Before she could do more, a sobbing, bespectacled man flung himself at it and the woman was forced to stop.

"No, Lenalee don't hurt it!" The sobbing man cried at the woman, her boots glowing an eerie white. She sighed and tendrils of black unwound themselves from her legs until she was standing in ankle-length boots.

"Nii-san, please stop the robot." The man sobbed some more but did eventually stop it. Then he wiped the tears from his face and turned to Kagome and Shippo, smiling, His face looked as if he had never been crying, much to Kagome and Shippo's shock.

_'Crocodile tears?!'_ they both thought in horror.

"Who may you two be?" he asked, the epitome of calm.

Shippo smirked. "It's not polite to ask someone's name without giving yours first." He replied.

The man pushed up his glasses and smiled goofily. "How rude of me. My name is Komui Lee and this is Lenalee Lee, my younger sister." He said, gesturing to the woman with the weird boots.

Kagome smiled at both of them. "My name is Higurashi Kagome and this is Shippo." Komui looked startled at her Japanese accent.

"I didn't think that any humans still lived in Japan, what with it being under the Millennium Earl's control." Kagome laughed nervously.

"Yeah, that's what Kanda said, but as you can see, here I am, human and from Japan. However, Shippo here isn't human, I must warn you." Komui and Lenalee tensed. Lenalee already had black tendrils wrapping around her legs yet again. Kagome rushed to reassure them, her arms flailing frantically around her.

"No, please don't fight! Shippo is a youkai, not an akuma. He is not under the Millennium Earl's control!"

"EH?!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

_**Recap:**_

_"No, please don't fight! Shippo is a youkai, not an akuma. He is not under the Millennium Earl's control!"_

_"EH?"_

_**End Recap**_

"You see, while _youkai _and _akuma _may mean the same thing, "demon", _akuma_ is something that I would use to describe the mindless drones that your Millennium Earl uses. _Youkai _on the other hand may band together in order to help boost their chances at survival, but they are mostly self-serving. They would never serve a master that they knew was sending them out to test the strength of your exorcists," Kagome explained calmly.

"Testing? You call that testing?" Kagome snarled.

Kagome fixed him with a straight-faced look. "If the Millennium Earl is as strong as you make him out to be, I don't see what is keeping him from simply storming these Headquarters and starting a massacre."

"That's because the Black Order is the strongest command centre for exorcists! We have many exorcists that can wipe out an army of _akuma _without a single thought!" Lenalee protested with vehemence. Kagome was unimpressed.

"There is only one energy source within this fortress I can sense that has the power to do that."

Komui was suspicious. How did she know that? Kagome saw his look and sighed.

"Once again, I am a _miko_. A shrine maiden trained in the arts of purification and demon slaying. Part of my training was to seek out every living creature's aura. You may hide your presence from me, but you can never hide your aura."

"Still, they may be wandering the Outside, but we do have many strong exorcists-" Kagome cut Lenalee off in the middle of her sentence.

"Exactly. They are not here," she stated, annoyed to have to constantly remind them of her point. "If the Millennium Earl is as strong as you say, but has not sent out his forces in order to wipe out his natural enemies, then he is either waiting for something, or testing your abilities. Obviously, he doesn't see much of a threat." Kagome raised an eyebrow.

"Not much of a threat? Listen here girly-" Kanda was cut off with a glowing purple finger that she waved in front of his face.

"Call me girly again and I'll blast you. Again." Allen hid his smile when he saw Kanda's disgruntled look. "And can we get back to the original topic?"

"You were talking about how I'm not a mindless drone?" Shippo prodded playfully, bringing the group's attention back on him.

Kagome grinned wryly. "Indeed."

Shippo raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Wow. You spend too much tie with Sesshomaru. You're starting to talk like him."

"Oh yeah? At least I don't use his trademark eyebrow raise."

They jabbed at each other playfully for a moment before Allen decided to interrupt on behalf of the rest of the bemused group.

"Um...hi? Are you going to tell us more? About the _youkai_?" he asked tentatively.

Kagome smiled. "Sure. _Youkai _always represent one element or inner animal. There are many types such as dog _youkai _or fire _youkai. Akuma_ on the other hand, I haven't seen. To make a judgement I would have to actually see one."

Allen smiled, but it was tinged with a dark, deep sadness. "_Akuma _are shaped through the physical manifestation of their sins. They aren't simply weapons, but molded through emotions and feelings that human."

Kagome was silent, and looked at Allen carefully.

"Sin..." Shippo breathed, looking at the sky.

Komui narrowed his eyes in contemplation of the two standing in front of him. Then he replaced his happy-go-lucky expression and ushered the group in. He turned to Kagome. "Would you mind going through an inspection with the Guardian of the cube of Innocence?"

Kagome nodded her head in assent while mumbling to herself, "Now it's a cube...?"

Shippo snickered.

Kagome kicked him in the shin.

And then she snickered while he hopped around, cradling his leg.

"So mean..." Shippo whimpered dramatically. Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Don't be such a baby."She followed Komui onto an elevated platform that immediately took off, leaving Shippo behind. Lurching violently to the side, Kagome quickly grabbed the railing in order to keep herself on her feet.

"What the hell?" she cursed, waiting for the platform to stop moving. Finally it did and she whipped around forcefully to face Komui and give him a piece of her mind. As she was about to tell him just exactly what she was going to do to him if he ever did something like that again without warning, white tendrils wrapped around her and dragged her off the platform.

Adrenaline filled her veins and her vision sharpened in her panic. Cold calculation quickly replaced her frantic emotions, and Kagome felt her battle sense begin to take over. She turned forcefully in the grip that she was kept in and observed just what was keeping her captive.

What met her eyes was definitely not what she was expecting. The creature had a large body reminiscent of a dragon _youkai _ever she had the head of a woman, eyes covered with a white shroud of some sort. Kagome drew out her _miko ki_ to surround her body, and blinked in shock when she realized that it didn't purify what she thought was a _youkai _before her. So that meant that this creature was not a _youkai _or _akuma_.

"Who are you?" Kagome asked quietly. "_What _are you?"

The creature in front of her tipped its head and loosened its grip on Kagome when it realized that she would no longer try to extricate herself from its hold. _"My name is Hevlaska. I did not mean to scare you. I only wish to learn more about your Innocence."_

Kagome nodded in agreement and drew her power back into herself. "Please go ahead."

Hevlaska bowed her head and let their foreheads touch. _"Innocence...1%..."_

_ "15%..."_

_ "39%..."_

_ "72%..."_

_ "100%?"_

Hevlaska pulled away with something akin to shock colouring her ethereal voice.

Kagome narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Is something the matter?"

Hevlaska shook her mighty head. _"I am merely surprised. There are not many exorcists that come through these halls with a very high synchronization rate. To find one with a perfect synchronization is almost impossible."_

Kagome smiled and nodded in understanding. "That is because my 'Innocence' is not a weapon. It is a part of me. I was born with this energy tied in with my life force."

Hevlaska nodded. _"Then you are one of God's chosen."_

"Yes I am."

_"It is an honour to meet you."_

"You as well."

With those parting words, Hevlaska gently set Kagome on her feet back on the platform. Kagome caught sight of Komui and quickly gave him a swift uppercut.

"You...bastard..." she growled, a vein throbbing on her forehead.

"My apologies-"

"Don't fake-apologize! You knew and you didn't fucking warn me!" Kagome snarled, cursing in her frustration.

Komui gave her a shit-eating grin. Kagome leapt at him, intent on strangling the crap out of him, but was stopped by an arm hooking around her waist. Komui gave Shippo a grateful look.

"Now, now, kaa-san, no harm, no foul."

"That no harm bit is about to be changed!" Kagome clawed at Shippo's arm but he held strong. Finally after a minute of thrashing and struggling, Kagome fell limp.

"Fell better now?"

Kagome sulked. "Yes."

"Good." He set her back on her feet and stopped her final lunge.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop now." Kagome promised.

Shippo merely raised an eyebrow but he did let go of her arm.

Taking a few deep breaths, Kagome glared at Komui. "Any other surprises I should know about?"

"Not at all. Unless you would like to demonstrate the difference between _youkai _and _akuma_?"

Kagome and Shippo shared a look.

"What do you think? Should we...?"

"But what about...? He would be so mad..." Shippo trailed off. Kagome nodded.

"He would know..."

"But if you use _that _he would forgive you in a heartbeat," Shippo replied, grinning.

"Yeah...and it would be fun..." Kagome rubbed her chin in thought, sharing Shippo's grin.

Okay, let's do it!" the _kitsune _announced happily, nodding his head.

"Um...hello?" Komui spoke up, a little wary when Kagome and Shippo turned to him, giant grins spreading across their faces in unison.

"Would you mind providing us with a large, spacious area? We think it will be better to show you what a _youkai _can do, along with what a _miko_ such as myself can do," Kagome asked sweetly.

Now his wariness had turned into something more along the lines of creeped-out. Their grins had not once wavered. Nonetheless, Komui scampered off to fulfill their requests.

"Ready Shippo?" Kagome grinned.

"Ready when you are." He grinned right back.

"Okay. Shift!" Kagome dove out of the way, until she reached the very edge of the room they were in and Shippo let loose his _youki_, feeling his bones rearrange and snap. Fur started to cover his body and he grew.

A lot.

In fact, when he finally finished Komui, Lenalee, Kanda, Allen and some miscellaneous Finders were now staring up at a five-tailed fox the size of Godzilla. Those who had been standing too close were now pressed uncomfortably to his fur.

"This is the power of higher-class _youkai_. This is also Shippo's true form," Kagome stated proudly, looking up at her son. He yipped and bounded over to her, stopping just in front of her. "And _this _is what a _miko _can do."

Extending her arms out in a parody of a hug, Kagome let her power surround her and shaped it in her arms. She had to do this just right, or her son would be suffering some serious burns. In bold flashes of light, her _miko ki _encased Shippo in a cage of pure energy before shrinking. Shippo shrunk with it until he was back to a human-like size. Concentrating, Kagome moved her hands and manipulated her power so that it settled like a second skin over Shippo and slowly, he began changing.

When the outline of his glowing body returned to what it normally was, Kagome let go of the _ki_ she had output and the cage around Shippo shattered, leaving only a grinning humanoid _kitsune._

"Nice, kaa-san, you did that in less time it normally takes you," he complimented, shrugging off the last remnants of her power.

Wiping her brow, Kagome smiled. "Thanks. Now all we need is some random _youkai _to appear so that I can turn it into dust. There's nothing else a miko really does except help guide souls to heaven."

Shippo coughed. Kagome looked at him.

"What?" she asked when he looked at her meaningfully.

"That's not the only thing you do," he retorted, glancing down at her side where a star-shaped scar was hidden.

Kagome let her hand rest on her hip and let her mood sober.

"Yeah..." Kagome said, lost in her memories of a past that she wished had never happened, yet she was selfishly thankful at the same time it had. Where would she be right now, if she had not met everyone?

Shippo walked forwards and dropped a hand to rest on her shoulder.

"It's okay, Kagome." His use of her name belied just how serious he was at that moment. "We would have been lost if we hadn't met you too."

Kagome smiled.

"Plus, I know Fluff-butt doesn't say it often, but he values you as well." Shippo's grin came back full-force.

"If you call this Sesshomaru that disgusting name again, this Sesshomaru will personally make sure that you will never spawn for the next couple centuries."

Shippo and Kagome jumped before turning around guiltily.

"Hey, Sesshomaru..." Shippo greeted the demon lord weakly.

"What's up?" Kagome asked, just as weakly.

"This Sesshomaru has warned you many times, that your _youki _is a beacon," Sesshomaru stated ominously. "The _youkai_ recognize your _youki_ will attract others to you because they know you are always near her."

Everyone turned to look at Kagome, who looked slightly sheepish. Komui and Lenalee were very shocked to see that someone had bypassed the gate.

"Has there been any that came?"

Sesshomaru gave Shippo his trademark are-you-an-idiot look.

"This Sesshomaru has already disposed of the filth that was attracted to your _youki_."

"So what's the problem?" Kagome asked, curious.

Sesshomaru looked at her with a deadpan look.

"The leader of the _ookami _tribe is on his way."

Kagome could only breathe out two words in her dread.

"Oh shit."


End file.
